[Python-3000] [Python-Dev] Filename as byte string in python 2.6 or 3.0?

["Martin v. Löwis"]

>> ISTM that 8859-1 is all about decoding, so I don't understand why
>> you say it is a way not to decode.
> 
> 8859-1 has no invalid bytes and is a 1-to-1 mapping.  If you have an
> API that always returns unicode but accepts an encoding you can use
> it, then reencode using 8859-1 to get back the original bytes.

I still don't understand. 8859-1 is an encoding, not a datatype.
So how do you propose file names to be represented? "In 8859-1"
is not a valid answer, because you cannot derive an implementation
from that answer (atleast, I cannot). Please explain.

Regards,
Martin